Diesel's Gone Green

If only Mad Max had gotten his grubby, oil-stained hands on a new Q7 TDI, the whole Road Warrior franchise might have taken a much different tone. Sleek, self-sufficient, and unshakably sturdy, Audi's vaguely egg-shaped diesel-powered SUV would have been the perfect ride for a post-apocalyptic wasteland where fuel was so scarce bands of merciless land pirates who thought nothing of running you off the road if in order to siphon off whatever fuel was left your tank. Actually, had Max gotten himself into one of the Q7 it would have ruined everything. How can you root for a guy cruising the barren hellscape in a luxury SUV that can go 600 miles between fill-ups, haul up to 6000 lbs., and outrun and outmaneuver any of those marauders on the plain. (The Big Bopper wouldn't stand a chance.) Luckily, the Q7 never appears in Mad Max for a number of reasons, not the least of which, where would he have gotten the fifty grand to pay for it?

But all Sci-Fi concerns aside, the Q7 represents a dream long overdue: to get great clean diesel engines in the States like they do in Europe. When we first wrote, in 2005, about a forthcoming fleet of clean, mean, semi-green diesel engines coming from our some of our favorite German car companies, we didn't think that four years later, this new diesel technology would be used to power a 5,000 lb. SUV from Audi, of all people, the company who resisted the SUV longer than just about everyone. But their version is powered by a 3.0 V-6 turbo diesel that could assuage some of the guilt of SUV addicts who can no longer forgive themselves their fossil-fuel-hardy selves. The numbers are in, and according to the EPA, the new Q7 will get 25 miles per gallon on the highway-compared to 18 highway from their 4.2 liter V-8 gas powered Q7. And it will do so, while producing 25% less carbon dioxide than gas engines and using ultra low-sulfur diesel fuel that even the State of California approves of. This message was hard to ignore in the vehicle I borrowed, the words "Clean Diesel" having been plastered on the rear end.

And once you're through patting yourself on the back for introducing fewer global-warming poisons into the air and driving a SUV that gets mileage to rival that of a six-cylinder Accord, then you can indulge in the real appeal of Audi's Q7. It's quick, smooth, and comfortingly indulgent inside, loaded with conveniences and aesthetic pleasures—the wood inlays in the dash, the heated leather seats, the full-service dash, or the massive, stern-to-stem sunroof—that would all be lost on Max.

If only Mad Max had gotten his grubby, oil-stained hands on a new Q7 TDI, the whole Road Warrior franchise might have taken a much different tone. Sleek, self-sufficient, and unshakably sturdy, Audi's vaguely egg-shaped diesel-powered SUV would have been the perfect ride for a post-apocalyptic wasteland where fuel was so scarce bands of merciless land pirates who thought nothing of running you off the road if in order to siphon off whatever fuel was left your tank. Actually, had Max gotten himself into one of the Q7 it would have ruined everything. How can you root for a guy cruising the barren hellscape in a luxury SUV that can go 600 miles between fill-ups, haul up to 6000 lbs., and outrun and outmaneuver any of those marauders on the plain. (The Big Bopper wouldn't stand a chance.) Luckily, the Q7 never appears in Mad Max for a number of reasons, not the least of which, where would he have gotten the fifty grand to pay for it?